Deaths after stampede at Hindu festival in India

At least 10 people killed in a pre-dawn stampede at a religious festival in eastern India, police said.

10 Aug 2015 13:27 GMT

People sleeping in a kilometres-long queue were trampled as others pushed towards the doors, officials said [AP]

A stampede outside a Hindu temple has killed at least 10 pilgrims in eastern India with others injured in the crush of up to 150,000 people, a police officer said.

The stampede at the Baidyanath Jyotirlinga temple in the state of Jharkhand erupted after pilgrims surged towards the building shortly after the doors opened, the officer told the AFP news agency on Monday.

Those sleeping in the kilometres-long queue were trampled as others pushed towards the doors, SN Pradhan, the additional director general of police in Jharkhand, said.

"Many tried to rush to the head of the queue which led to chaos and as some of them fell, the devotees got trampled," Pradhan said.

"Ten people including one female devotee are now confirmed dead. Another 15 to 20 people have received injuries," he said.

I spoke to CM Jharkhand Shri Raghubar Das who apprised me of the situation in Deoghar post the stampede & he asked for extra RAF deployment